Mie Orientation, NOT a Real Earthquake, and Some Urban Philosophy

Mie Orientation

Yesterday and today my wife and I attended the Mie Orientation. This orientation is meant to follow on from the orientation as presented to the JETs in Tokyo earlier this month, but is geared at providing more region specific information.

Yesterday's orientation honestly contained some repetition of some of the themes presented at Tokyo, but in my opinion the seminars presented at the Mie orientation seemed a bit more polished. (Well done guys!)

The Mie Orientation was held in Tsu, the main city in Mie, about 45 minutes drive from Matsusaka. We drove to the orientation the first day, which was a first drive that far away from our home town. We still don't have cell phones and subsequently we still don't have GPS for now. So it was a little bit stressful, but mostly in a fun way. Yesterday evening we visited what I think may have been a Gaijin (foreigner) bar in Tsu, which was organised by the JET community here in Mie. It was a good opportunity to meet some new people, particularly some of the existing JETs that have not been involved in the Mie Orientation.

Public Transport

Today was also a particularly interesting day because I used the public transport for the first time. Taryn had already used the buses, so she introduced me to the bus protocols involved. From our apartment to the Matsusaka Train Station it cost about 250 yen per person (about R25). From Matsusaka Train Station to Tsu station it cost about 320 yen (about R32) per person. The trip itself was way more relaxing than driving, the condition of the trains and buses are very good and very comfortable, with more than adequate cushioning and air-conditioning. All in all considered I would be very happy to use the public transport again, but it is quite expensive by South African standards. In South Africa I think that the bus trip probably would have cost about R8-R9. I'm not sure about the train trip to be honest.) Japan's transport is very expensive, I would think it be prohibitively expensive for the poor people here, but then again, I can't really tell how many poor people there are, nor the extent of their poverty, so it's all quite hard to tell.

In conclusion, the trip cost us R114 for both of us to travel an hour-and-a-half, so I suspect that it would be less expensive to drive if there were 2 people going. At R57 for one person however, using public transport may be more efficient financially.

Earthquake

Ok, so as part of our introduction today we did something that was pretty damn interesting. We went on a little bit of an excursion up the road to an earthquake simulator. The reason for this is because Japan is an earth-quake prone area. Very earthquake prone to be honest. And since we will be in Japan for a few years it seems probable that we will be exposed to some kind of earthquake while we're here. Hopefully the earthquakes we're exposed to will be minor earthquakes, but to better prepare us for the real deal, the earthquake simulator was deemed to be an appropriate introduction to this terrifying phenomenon.

The earthquake simulator is actually performed in a truck that has been specially modified to have a flat ground-like surface that rocks like no other truck I've ever seen!

We were exposed to simulated earthquakes that measured up to 7 on the Richter scale (if I understood correctly). Thankfully we were only exposed to this for about 7 seconds, but it was more than enough time to realise that if it happens we'll be (a) powerless to resist, (b) powerless to control our movement, and (c) powerless to do anything about it. One of the symptoms of being exposed to a #7 is that you can find yourself spending some of your time in the air (as in off the ground) as the effects of gravity take a while to kick in once the Earth releases you from the highs of its undulations.

The really good consequences of the simulation experience is that (a) is scared me into taking the preparations for earthquakes a bit more seriously, and (b) is that it showed us how to brace ourselves. Bracing yourself basically means kneeling (in a very Japanese way) and lowering your centre of gravity forward such that your weight is as low as possible and somewhat distributed between your knees and your hands. I suppose that in this way you're able to adjust your position on the ground so that you're not using your face like a pogo-stick during an earthquake. This is good advice, and advice I'm certainly going to be trying to apply in the event of an earthquake.

So I'm going to leave this post with that advice. When in an earthquake try to avoid being like an overturned turtle and floundering on your back by using the prescribed brace position. Furthermore, try and avoid using your face as a pogo-stick. If you can do either of these, you're probably doing a good job. Bonus marks will be awarded if you can do both at the same time.

Some Urban Philosophy

The good news is that Earthquakes are a fact of life, and have been since the birth of the planet. This is not a new phenomenon, what is new is that news channels are now able to communicate and broadcast each one in a dramatic, rating-earning and hence, money-earning way. So when it happens... help if you can help, pray if you believe in prayer, and try and remain positive. 

There's a super-awesome quote from Logen Ninefingers, a character created by fantasy author Joe Abercrombie in his book The Blade Itself that said, 

Once you've got a task to do, it's better to do it than live with the fear of it.

I love this quote because to me it encapsulates a philosophy that I believe should be applied to life itself. At it's core I believe that fear should never be the only reason you do or don't do something. In fact, if the only reason your don't want to do something is because of  fear, then you pretty much have to do it... otherwise you're being lived instead of living.